After 27 years in prison, Ill. man cleared in teen's murder

CHICAGO - A man who spent nearly 30 years in prison for the 1984 sexual assault and slaying of a 15-year-old suburban Chicago girl has left prison a free man after a judge threw out his conviction.

Illinois Corrections Department spokesman Tom Shaer said 48-year-old Christopher Abernathy was released Wednesday after a judge agreed to a prosecutor's request to vacate his life sentence.

His attorney, Lauren Kaeseberg, says Abernathy didn't make a statement as he left the Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet. But Kaesberg says Abernahty is "just so happy that he's able to go home, that he's free and gets to be with his family."

Abernathy was sentenced to life in 1987, but DNA testing last August excluded him from being involved in the death of Kristina Hickey, a high school student from Park Forest.

Hickey went missing on Oct. 3, 1984 after a choir concert at the Rich East High School which she attended, according to the Illinois Innocence Project. The girl's body was found two days later under bushes near a shopping center. She had been sexually assaulted.

Abernathy's attorneys said he was arrested more than a year later and signed a statement implicating himself in the case after more than 40 hours of interrogation. Abernathy later said he was coerced into signing the document. He had documented learning disabilities and left school at age 15, his attorneys said.